My 10-year-old daughter is fast at freestyle and likes to swim it at meets. The coach keeps entering her in different events even though she doesn’t like to swim them. I want her to enjoy swimming but she dreads the butterfly and especially breaststroke. She gets stressed out before those events. Do you have any advice on if we should talk to the coach about this and ask him to not enter her in those events?

—Freestyle Mom

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Dear Freestyle Mom,

We went through the same thing with our daughter who was better at freestyle than her other strokes at age 10. When she reached a plateau in freestyle later on, she saw improvement in her off strokes which helped keep her excited about swimming. At age 10, there is so much to learn and improve on.

Most coaches will want 10-year-old swimmers learning and developing all their strokes. You never know what her best stroke will be years from now. If she focuses on freestyle at age 10, she’s limiting her swimming future.

I know it’s too early for your swimmer to think about college, but keep in mind that college coaches like swimmers who can swim several events. A distance freestyler who can swim the 200 fly and 400 IM will find more interest from college coaches than a freestyle specialist.

It sounds like your daughter is competitive and may not like getting beat in her off strokes. As she grows and improves her technique, she’ll get stronger and faster. She may find she loves breaststroke after all. After she swims an off event, compliment her for effort and don’t focus on her results.

Maybe her coach can explain why he wants her to swim all four strokes and improve her technique. It’s a conversation better coming from the coach than parents.

What would you tell Freestyle Mom about her daughter being entered in races she’s not happy to swim?

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